


One Cardassian, Slightly used

by axolotlparty



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Cute, Gen, Kid Fic, Pet au, this was going to be a multi chaper but i like it as a oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 18:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axolotlparty/pseuds/axolotlparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cardassians are tiny lizards that live only on Post-World War Three England. Normally, they live in huge family groups. But sometimes one gets exiled for doing something unspeakable. Elim Garak is one of these unfortunate few.</p>
<p>But a small boy named Jules Bashir finds him and gives him a new home. Well, if you can really call a hospital full of aliens and weird tests home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Cardassian, Slightly used

Elim Garak knew he’d been left at the creek to die, exiled from his quiver by his own father, no less. He was freezing. The frigid water of early spring gnawed at the legs he couldn't move from the banks. The Sun was going down. Elim knew he would freeze if left out here all night, away from the warm, safe pile of his fellow sleeping Cardassians. 

 

“Stupid, STUPID boy! Didn't it ever occur to you that Tain knew more than you told him? He’s the leader of the Quiver. You KNEW it was wrong to go running through the clover with Palandine! You knew the price you would have to pay yet you did it anyway!

 

Elim slid off the rock he was perched on and lost his trousers to the torrential waters. A final embarrassment to the pathetic little life of his that was about to end. He couldn’t feel anything below his chest and the cold crept upward. 

 

“Very soon, the chill will take my heart and stop it. My only wish is that it were sooner” he thought.

 

*crunch crunch crunch*

 

Heavy footfalls headed in his direction. Human. 

 

So it ends by a predator tossing me into the water, eh? A fitting punishment.  
The footfalls stopped.  
“S’cuse me, Mister Froggy. Are you okay?” the human said. It was a youth, a male youth.

 

Elim let out a squeak to let the human know that he was beyond help.

“You’re too hot. I’m gonna take you home.”

 

Suddenly something very warm was beneath Elim. The human’s hand? Was this his ticket to salvation?

 

Elim could ask no questions as he was scooped up against the human’s chest.  
The warmth of the human absolutely radiated off of him. He didn't mind the rapid bobbing as the human ran for home, just as long as he could have some of that wonderful heat. It was as soft and soothing as the August sands. Elim’s frigid body drank in the endotherm’s glow. He regained the feeling in his legs and then realized that he was indecent. If he weren't busy fighting for survival, he would have been embarrassed by his state of undress.

 

The human stopped. Through his chubby little fingers, Elim could see a human dwelling, and the human holding him went inside.

 

The house was almost as warm as the human. He turned to an older female human that was probably his mother.

 

“Mummy, I found a froggy! He was all alone on the creek and he was real hot!” the boy said.

 

“Then put the nice froggy back outside. It’s time for dinner, Jules.” A voice from behind a large armchair said.  
The woman turned around to him and said “Richard, you know what he’s going to go through soon. Let him have this.”

 

“He’ll stay in my room, Dad, I promise!” the boy begged.

“You won’t even know he’s in the house.” The woman chided.

The man turned around. He was tall and portly with a bushy, graying mustache.

 

“As long as the Cardassian doesn't lay any eggs in the house.” He said after a long pause and the most adorable face that Jules could muster.  
Jules jumped for joy at his father’s decree and his mother replicated a suitable habitat. It was a large aquarium, almost large enough for Jules to sit in. There was a basking rock with a lamp above it in the southeastern corner of the aquarium. Dishes for food and water sat in the opposite corner along with a humidifier. A wooden branch sat between the two other corners with tiny vines growing from it. The tank was given a bed of sand that Elim was promptly placed in. 

 

The tank sat on the carpet beneath Jules’ loft bed. Before he left to eat his cooling dinner, Jules took the pants from one of his soft toys and gave them to Elim. They were much too short in the legs, but he appreciated not being half-naked anymore.Left alone to his thoughts, Elim wandered about his new home. It was far smaller than anything he had ever been in, but not small enough to trigger his claustrophobia. In fact, it felt almost large without any other Cardassians in it. 

 

“And there will never be any other Cardassians in this, thanks to your recklessness. You got yourself abandoned with only the company of rather dim-witted human boy. You’ll never eat another fresh moth or wear clothes made of spider silk. You’ll be alone for the rest of your miserable life and you know exactly who to blame. Yourself!  
Elim’s exile was finally sinking in. He would be stuck in this box for the rest of his life. He could support himself no longer. He fell to his heat rock and wept in his loneliness. His only comforts now would be visits from a human who couldn’t tell a product of World War Three’s mutative experiments from a frog. What a life.

 

“Aww, don’t cry little Froggy. Mum’s reading us a bedtime story.”

 

Jules had changed into his pajamas and his hair was still wet from his bath. He scooped Elim out of his tank and jumped to place him on his mattress. He proceeded to chase up the ladder to put the Cardassian back into his tiny, warm hands. His mother came up the ladder much more slowly. Julian sat criss-cross with Elim up to his chest so he could partake in the story as well. His mother pulled out a PADD from a large pocket in her pants and began to read.

“Once upon a time, there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.”

“Now really” Elim thought. “No self-respecting rabbit would have that sort of name”

“They lived with their mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big Fir tree.”

Elim could feel Jules’ arms falling. He was falling asleep already, little guy. All the playing and running by the creek must have worn him out.  
“Now my dears, said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, you may go into the fields or down the lane but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden. Your father had an accident there; he was put into a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”

Elim snapped to attention. “Mrs. Bashir, I trust you know what is best for Jules’ developing young mind but this is absolutely gruesome” He thought.

But Jules wasn't listening. He was sound asleep sitting up and holding his new reptilian friend.

“Now run along and don’t get into mischief, I am going out.”

Amsha looked up at her son and sighed. She gently pried Elim out of Jules’ hands and placed him on his heat rock.

“You really wore him out today, little Froggy. I just hope you can keep him this entertained at the hospital.”  
“But there’s nothing wrong with the boy! Albeit, he’s a little slow but he had emotional wisdom well beyond his years.” Elim thought.  
Amsha Bashir turned out the light in her son’s bedroom, leaving only the soft, warm glow of the red heat lamp and a very confused, but comforted Cardassain.

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 2 coming at you soon with everyone's favorite sass-master Trill and maybe even a visit from the EMH. "The tale of peter Rabbit" is property of Beatrix Potter.


End file.
